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Archived: FetchMe: You can order anything (legal) via SMS and they’ll take care of the order for you

iCrowdNewswire - Apr 30, 2015

FetchMe

FetchMe is everyone’s personal concierge. You can order anything (legal) via SMS and they’ll take care of the order for you. FetchME are aiming to emulate the widely successful Magic in the US which recently raised $12m.

The Idea

FetchMe is everyone’s personal concierge.

You can order anything (legal) via SMS and we’ll take care of the order for you.

Once you’re happy with the order, we’ll send you a link to pay on your phone. All payments are handled by stripe which is extremely easy and secure.

It has received a lot of press and has been named the hottest startup in America.

It’s a service that needs to be localised in each country and we’re striving to be the first ones to develop it in the UK.

We are striving to become the UK market leader and subsequently an attractive acquisition target for a company looking to expand overseas such as Magic. A similar situation occured in the UK with Airbnb, Groupon and countless others.

If they don’t buy the business, we aim to have a huge head start on them with a team in place and a concept that could be the future of commerce as we know it.

You’re on your way home from work and you need flowers for your mother’s birthday, you need to do grocery shopping and there’s a summer holiday to Thailand that you need to book. Which app do you use for all of that? Where are the log in details? Too many apps, too many websites, too little time.

SOLUTION

Imagine being able to write that request as an SMS and have someone take care of it all for you. FetchMe is everyone’s personal concierge.

HOW IT GROWS

Just like other on-demand services like Uber & Handy. We plan to offer credits to make people feel comfortable trying the service for the first time. People will be able to share these credits with friends. The funding will enable us to figure out our ROI based on the Lifetime Value of a customer. Once we know what this return is, we’ll be able to use this to raise significantly more capital. We’ve already had inbound expressions of interest from VCs.

DEFENSIBLE

By making sure we maintain our leadership position in the U.K., we will have more leverage with suppliers which in turn ensures our customers get a better deal from us than any new competitors.

TRACTION

FetchMe only launched a week ago and has already had interviews and articles with BBC, Lifehacker, Protein Magazine and The Next Web. We believe we’re currently the UK market leader and we plan to use this seed funding in order to maintain this lead.

It will be used to scale the team further and do initial testing on our credit model to see what our ROI is. If we prove that we have a positive ROI, we then have a much stronger case to raise significantly more capital.

KEY OBJECTIVES

First Stage

Establish mindshare in the UK market by capitalising on the first mover advantage as much as possible. This will mean focusing on press and leveraging the story and novelty of this service.

Build out a very high quality management team that have the capability to scale the business.

Second Stage

Once we start to establish mindshare in the UK, we need to build a more sustainable growth strategy.

This will be done through a credit system that can be shared with friends. We need to break down the barriers to purchase and giving people credit to spend is the best way to do that.

We understand it’s been proven with all on-demand services such as Uber and Handy. We need to establish what our ROI is with these credits based on the average lifetime value of a customer over a 6 month period so that we know how to scale this growth mechanic when we have more capital.

Third Stage

We will invest further in Twilio development which will allow us to build out a more automated messaging service. This will make the technology more reliable, fast and scalable.

Fourth Stage

Start to build relationships with our suppliers so that they pay us instead of the customer paying us. This will make the market size for our service significantly larger with very little excuses for using apps and websites instead of FetchMe.

The Market

MARKET SIZE

Online retail sales in the UK are predicted to be worth £52 billion this year. This is a 16% increase on 2014 when the total stood at £45 billion.

In order to use the service, customers must have a smartphone. In the UK, smartphone penetration is currently at 81% and is predicted to reach 90% by 2017.

We believe the market size is significantly larger than this as we cater to many different markets including taxi services, cleaners, childcare and so much more.

INDUSTRY TRENDS

Mobile instant messengers have proven to be an extremely popular way to communicate with friends. We think the next step is for people to use these platforms for shopping and ordering services.

There isn’t a simpler or faster way to order goods or services than a simple text message. Once people become more familiar with this method of shopping, we think it could be a huge opportunity.

We believe this is the future of commerce.

As people move to wearables such as the Apple Watch, the simplicity of this product will only become more important. There is no need to download apps, or even type anything. People can simply open iMessages on their watch and send a voice message making it even simpler than ordering on their phone. We think this is a huge opportunity for FetchMe going forward.

THREATS

Our biggest threat so far is maintaining the leadership position in the UK. We plan to combat this by raising capital to build on our marketing efforts and establish mindshare in London. If we build enough of a leadership position, we should then have leverage over our suppliers which will enable us to offer products and services at a significantly lower price than any new entrants. The further ahead we get, the harder it will be for new competitors.

STRENGTHS

We believe we currently have the first mover advantage in the UK

We’ve already started to establish a relationship with suppliers who have been receptive to the idea of giving us preferential treatment and commission.

We’re based in London giving us the opportunity to establish strong local mindshare with both customers, suppliers and press.

COMPETITORS

Our closest competitor so far is Magic. They’re based in the US so they’re not an immediate threat to us in the UK. We plan to build a significant head start on them before they plan to enter this market so that they will either be forced to buy us or they will have an uphill battle competing with us.

MAGIC DETAILS

Location – California, US

Funding – $14mm at $40mm valuation from Sequoia

Technology – Twilio for SMS back end Stripe for payment

Traction – Lots of US press and tens of thousands of requests

Launch date – 15 Feb 2015

FETCHME DETAILS

Location –London, UK

Funding – £0

Technology – Twilio for SMS back end Stripe for payment

Traction – Lots of UK press

Launch date – 6 Apr 2015

The People

DEAN FANKHAUSER, CHAIRMAN

Previously worked at Yahoo, Havas (Strategy / Biz dev). Founder and Chairman, Nuji. Dean Fankhauser is a seasoned entrepreneur having built technology businesses from scratch to high growth and profitability. Dean is responsible for technology and business development.

Some awards:

Young Guns 2014 – Named top 30 entrepreneur under 35 in UK

The Guardian 2012 – East London’s 20 Hottest Startups

TNW Startup Rally 2012 – Best Web App

TNW 2011 – One of Europe’s hottest startups

Seedcamp 2011 – Seedcamp Winner

London Tech City – Named one of the top 100 people in creative tech and entrepreneurship in the UK in 2013 and 2014

Techcrunch Europas 2013 – Nuji was one of 10 startups nominated as top UK startup

Reed College, Dartmouth College, Founder, Your GMAT Coach. Rowan has built Your GMAT coach from scratch and has over 9 years of experience helping his clients get into excellent business programs, including LBS, Harvard, INSEAD, Wharton, and others. Rowan is responsible for day-to-day operations and scaling the sales team.

FetchMe’s initial funding will be used to hire A-class talent, building a team that will take us to completion as effectively and efficiently as possible.

The Exit Strategy

Simple. FetchMe plans to be bought by Magic, its largest US competitor. As the largest competitor to Magic in the UK market, FetchMe aims to provide a solid infrastructure package that can be bought as soon as Magic decides to expand to international markets.

We believe FetchMe has the potential to grow quickly and become an independent company with the ability to IPO; however, our short-term priority is a quick exit.

We are looking for investors who can align with this strategy and help us to realise it.

Rewards

Rewards with monetary value over £1000 can affect the amount of EIS you may be able to claim. Please obtain independent tax advice if there is any concern as Crowdcube does not provide legal or tax advice.

Invest £10 and get

Every investment will receive a £10 credit to use the service. The minimum investment is £10 to receive this reward.

Share Types

This company is offering both A and B shares. If you invest £1,000 or more you will receive A-shares which have full voting rights. If you invest less than £1,000 you will receive B-shares which have no voting rights or pre-emption.

Tax Relief

FetchMe has submitted their plans to raise money, details of their structure and trade etc. to HMRC and is awaiting advice on whether or not the proposed share issue is likely to qualify for Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) tax reliefs relating to their shares.

Tax relief is available to individuals only, who subscribe for shares in a Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS). Relief is at 50 per cent of the cost of the shares, to be set against the individual’s Income Tax liability for the tax year in which the investment was made.

The availability of any tax relief, including EIS and SEIS, depends on the individual circumstances of each investors, and may be subject to change in the future. If you are in any doubt about the availability of any tax reliefs, or the tax treatment of your investment, you should obtain independent tax advice before proceeding with your investment.

Risk Warning

Investing in start-ups and early stage businesses involves risks, including illiquidity, lack of dividends, loss of investment and dilution, and it should be done only as part of a diversified portfolio. Crowdcube is targeted exclusively at investors who are sufficiently sophisticated to understand these risks and make their own investment decisions. You will only be able to invest via Crowdcube once you are registered as sufficiently sophisticated.

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